Stunning, breathtaking, Oh Em Gee, however you want to put it, the photos in this post are incredible to look at and incredibly difficult to capture. Not because it takes any crazy skills to properly photograph the Grand Canyon, but because the atmospheric conditions necessary to make these photos possible happens only about once per decade!

As you might have already noticed, the clouds in these photos decided to take a breather and settle into the Grand Canyon instead of floating above it. This phenomenon happens when something called a temperature inversion pushes fog down into the Grand Canyon and keeps it there.

Smaller versions of this happen about once or twice per year, Park Ranger Erin Whittaker told The Daily Mail, but a full inversion like this happens only about once every ten years and, as you can see, it’s quite a sight to behold:

Ironically, Ranger Whittaker said that some of the tourists thought this was a typical occurrence and were disappointed that the pesky fog was obscuring their view of the Colorado River, an annoyance Whittaker and her colleagues quickly alleviated when they explained how rare the vista they were being treated to really is.

And once word got around that a gorgeous full inversion like this was happening under clear blue skies (yet another rarity), Whittaker said that “Word spread like wildfire” as locals streamed into the park to photograph the phenomenon. Whittaker called it “a treat for all.”